Just One Night
by Foreteller Ava
Summary: Strelitzia dragged him out to Castle of Dreams in hopes that this time his support would be enough so she could gather up the courage to approach the girl, the least he could do is have a little bit of fun with her while he's here. [Spoilers for JPUx] [AU] [One Shot]


"I'm sure she's here, Lauriam!" Strelitzia beamed as she dragged the pink haired Keyblade Wielder to the castle. Lauriam was used to his friend's odd habits, following around the girl from Vulpes in an attempt to one day say hello. "Chirithy said he heard that she had some friends around here, a princess I think. She was helping her get to the ball."

"They're throwing a ball here?" While he was certainly excited for Strelitzia at the potential for her to meet the girl she had been crushing on for months, he was much more interested in watching her enjoy herself in the world they'd both never been to. "And I never got an invite. How rude of them."

Strelitzia smiled. "Well, we're here now, that counts as an invite, right?" She looked around the area for a few more moments, before her eyes locked on the garden. "Out there, I'd bet she's just outside!" She bolted out the door, causing Lauriam to run out there after her. The chances of Heartless attacking them were slim given the positive attitudes of most of the guests here tonight, but one could never be too safe. The two stopped at the edge of the balcony, where they saw a short brown haired girl watching a couple dance in the garden. He heard Strelitzia let out a sigh as she watched.

"Come on Strelitzia, go talk to her, ask her to dance." He attempted to encourage her with a small smile, watching as any confidence the two had managed to work on disappear out of Strelitzia fairly quickly. "At least introduce yourself, you've wanted to say hi to her for a while, right?" She still seemed to be held back by some kind of fear. "Strelitzia?"

"I can't." She shook her head. "What if she doesn't like me. She's so nice and cool and I'm just…well, I'm just me." She continued to watch the couple with their Keyblade Wielder guard. Lauriam couldn't help but note how sad she seemed. "One day, I'll talk to her. Right now, I don't think I can…"

He placed a hand on her shoulder, not saying anything for the current moment. Strelitzia had brought up her fears to him before, about the Keyblade Wielder. Despite the fact that he'd had a few interactions with her, and had even promised her he'd put in a good word for her, Strelitzia still couldn't bring herself to even say hi to the girl. Instead, all she could do was wind up in the same area by mistake, or make the attempt to greet her and then just clamp down and shut up. He'd have to keep working at getting her to talk soon. She deserved more friends than just him.

He stayed quiet for another couple of seconds before finally speaking up. "Strelitzia, you're one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. If she doesn't like you, then she's a fool." And he meant that, sincerely. Lauriam couldn't imagine a nicer person than her, no matter how hard he tried.

"Thanks, Lauriam." Strelitzia gave him a smile, but didn't say anything more. The two sat in a companionable silence, watching the scene play out for a little while longer.

"She's leaving..." She watched as the girl's Chirithy appeared for a moment to talk to her before the two summoned a corridor out of the gardens, likely to go rest after a day of gathering Lux and saving the worlds. Come to think of it, he'd probably be turning in too once they finished up in Castle of Dreams. "I still couldn't bring myself to talk to her."

"Cheer up, one day, you will." Lauriam offered her a hand. "Until that day comes, however, may I have this dance?"

"What?" Strelitzia looked up at him with a look of surprise. He grinned at her, feeling slightly cocky as she seemed to not understand. Surprise slowly settled into confusion as he realized she wasn't answering. "Why are you asking me to dance?"

"It's a ball, isn't it?" He gave her a slight smile. "If you can't have a dance in the moonlight with the girl of your dreams, maybe you'll appreciate one with a friend?" Strelitzia hesitantly reached for Lauriam's hand, placing hers in it has he wrapped one arm around her waist. Neither of them were particularly good at dancing. He had never had a day of training for it, and it seemed like she'd never even danced before with how frequently they were tripping over each other's feet, and each misstep resulting in an awkward burst of laughter and apologies, mostly from her, but some from him as well.

It wasn't long before the two found some kind of rhythm. The movements still weren't graceful, but at least now they were in time with the music and not almost killing the other with each step. They danced through a few songs before noting that the prince and princess seemed to have stopped dancing, and that it seemed like the ball was finishing up for the night. "Hey, Strelitzia, it's getting late."

Strelitzia, who had been distracted by dancing stopped, realizing the time. "We should head back to Daybreak Town. Lux isn't going to gather itself, after all." She smiled awkwardly, and he couldn't blame her. If he'd known their little excursion was going to result in them being out this late, he might've chosen to stay home.

"Right." He smiled at her, watching as her Chirithy summoned a portal for the girl to go through. "Meet you tomorrow after we finish gathering Lux?"

"Of course." Strelitzia smiled, stepping into the corridor her Chirithy summoned. "Good night, Lauriam." And with that the shy Keyblade Wielder was gone, leaving just himself remaining.

" _I don't see why you waste your time on her."_ Lauriam turned around, seeing his own, darkly colored Chirithy behind him. Admittedly, he hated seeing his Chirithy so corrupt, but the power that it provided, was more useful than anything else. He did feel bad that his poor decisions had affected the poor thing so badly, but it was a small price to pay.

"Of course you wouldn't." Lauriam shook his head. It wasn't worth explaining to the Chirithy. He'd tried it before, after the poor guy had become corrupt, but it hadn't made a difference. He pet the Chirithy on the head as he opened up his own corridor of darkness. "Come on, Chirithy, let's get some sleep too."

" _Just be prepared to kill her if she gets in our way of infiltrating the Union Leaders when the time comes."_ Seemed like Chirithy wasn't very amused with his actions, at least. Which was fine by him, he didn't like the purple cat like creature much anymore either.

"She won't." Lauriam was certain things would end up find. "Strelitzia wouldn't hurt anybody, and I doubt she'll be important enough to be our target."

He had no idea how wrong he was until he took her life in the name of one small book.

* * *

 **Why can't I ever write nice normal pairs. Mostly friendship but it reads kinda shippy so ya know.**

 **This idea was actually inspired by an anon of mine on tumblr, MMO Anon, who was initially sending me asks of "What if KHUx was a true MMO?" which eventually got out of hand and spiraled off into a tragic AU where everything hurts. One of those points in the AU is that Lauriam and Strelitzia were friends before everything happened.**

 **Yes, Lauriam actually cares for Strelitzia. He just wants his power that much more. Talk about backstabbing.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **-Foreteller Ava/Nicole Peach**


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